The Internet provides unprecedented scrutiny of all things legislative in Arkansas.

With live-streamed meetings, the proliferation of blogs and online news websites such as ArkansasNews.com, plus a steady flow of updates directly from legislators via Twitter and Facebook, voters back home can keep up with the details of their legislator’s work under the Capitol dome.

Expense accounts by lawmakers also are being scrutinized to the point that it appears they are being not so cleverly disguised as a salary supplement.

There’s no question that pay for serving in the Legislature is low, likely inadequate for the work required.

The salaries for state legislators in Arkansas are $15,869 a year, except for the speaker of the House and the Senate president pro tempore, who each receive $17,771. Lawmakers vote on their own salaries — along with the salaries for constitutional officers — in one of the first bills passed at the beginning of each regular legislative session.

The latest per capita income in Arkansas is $33,150, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The Federal Poverty Level for 2011 for a family of four is $22,350.

Arkansas legislative salaries tend to lag behind most other state legislatures, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. There are exceptions.

New Mexico, for example, does not pay legislators at all. Alabama pays its legislators $10 a day. Texas set salaries for legislators at $7,200 per year. And Mississippi pays $10,000 per year. On the other end of the spectrum is California, where legislators earn over $95,000 a year.

So why are salaries for Arkansas lawmakers relatively low? The philosophical answer is that the state has a “citizen legislature” that is not in session all that often. By design, citizen legislatures are not occupied by full-time politicians, but rather by those employed in other occupations who take time out to serve their state.

This sounds good in civics class, but try asking your boss for three or four months off every other year for the regular session, a month or two during the fiscal session, and a few days each month in between time for interim committee meetings.

And of course, that does not include time spent in meetings back home in your district or fielding requests from constituents.

Unless someone is independently wealthy, retired or living in his or her parents’ basement, the salary is a tough hurdle to overcome.

The reality is that Arkansas is a populist state and as such its residents take pleasure in having low-paid elected officials. The popularity of politicians falls somewhere in the food chain just below a lawyer and slightly above a tax collector. No offense meant to lawyers and tax collectors. And since legislators vote on their own pay, it would be politically dangerous to be the one who proposed doubling their pay.

Instead, they have increased the size of their expense reimbursements over the years. If being completely candid, most legislators would admit they could not afford to be a legislator and support their family without the expense reimbursements subsidizing their income.

For many, the expense reimbursements are actually more than their salary. Oftentimes the documentation for expenses is little more than a “service agreement” signed with the legislator’s spouse or for “office space” rented at the legislator’s house.

Legislators are by no means getting rich by the system but merely supplementing their income to a modest livable amount. Nevertheless, it is clearly dishonest.

The obvious solution is to raise the legislative salaries to a livable wage — perhaps even tie it to the state’s per capita income. But that won’t happen until the embarrassment of the shady expense reimbursement system is greater than the desire to pretend they are not grossly underpaid.

I say to legislators: Do the right thing and give yourself a raise.

Jason Tolbert is an accountant and conservative political blogger. His blog — The Tolbert Report — is linked at ArkansasNews.com. His email is jason@TolbertReport.com.